Roxie
by Lissa88
Summary: Catherine gets attacked at a crime scene and goes into a coma. When she wakes up, she isn't quite herself. GC COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Roxie**

Rating: T

Summary: An amnesia with a twist. Catherine gets attacked at a scene, goes into a coma and wakes up... not herself. I know, I know, I hurt her a lot in my fics. Haha but I really do like her! Not trying to be mean, although I guess I am. Haha

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI. However if you're selling it, I swear I'll place the highest bid!

Chapter 1

Grissom and Catherine walked into their crime scene for the night. A 20 year old was found dead up in his bedroom and Grissom went up to investigate it.

"I'll be upstairs with the body, you stay down here and do a walk through." he said as he walked up the stairs. Catherine clicked on her flashlight and began to look around the living room for evidence. She walked around carefully taking in the details of the room. She noticed a door that was in between the entry way to the kitchen from the living room. It was open and she thought she heard it creak. She slowly approached the door and pulled in open wider. She didn't have time to even think when a man jumped out, grabbed her by the hair and kneed her in the stomach. Catherine tried to scream in pain but the wind was knocked out of her by the man's blow. He tossed her through the door which led to the basement. She tumbled down the stairs in all different directions and landed in a thud at the bottom. She lied in her own blood pool at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious.

Grissom thought he heard a yelp downstairs and decided to make sure everything was okay. He slowly descended the stairs from the upper level of the house to the middle level. He didn't see Catherine anywhere though. "Catherine?" he called out, still standing on the stairs, waiting for a response. He never got one. "Cath? You there?" he vacated his place on the bottom stair and continued to walk through the living room looking around. He didn't see a trace of her. He then saw a light flashing from the kitchen, it was low on the ground. He assumed her flashlight had fallen on the ground. He drew his gun and continued to look around cautiously. "Catherine?" he called a little louder this time. He, again, waited for a response. "Catherine!" he yelled it now, scared of where she could be. He reached the kitchen where he saw her flashlight on the floor and the door to the basement open. He peered down into the blackness of the basement. He flashed a beam of light down there and saw Catherine lying at the bottom of the stairs. "Somebody call an ambulance! We have an officer down!" he screamed to the cops outside, taking witness' statements and ran down the stairs. He checked her pulse and was relieved when he found one. He saw the pool of blood coming from her head and saw the nasty gash she had on her forehead. The ambulance arrived in record time and took Catherine away to the hospital. Grissom watched it drive away as Brass approached him.

"We got a suspect in custody. We caught him running out of the yard right before you found Catherine." Grissom shot Brass a grave look and turned back to where the ambulance had been.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Grissom sat in the waiting room with of Desert Palms hospital with Warrick, Nick and Sara, waiting for a result on Catherine. The doctor exited her room and when he saw Grissom and the rest of the team sitting the waiting room, he walked towards him. They noticed Dr. Phillips coming and all stood up.

"Well, how is she?" Grissom asked.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Warrick followed, not giving the doctor a chance to say anything yet.

"Well she's... stable at the moment. Only, there's a problem." the doctor said sincerely.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked.

"She's in a coma. She had a pretty bad head injury and it caused some internal bleeding. We drilled a small hole in her skull to drain the blood, only we don't know if and when she'll wake up."

"If?" Sara said.

"Well, we really can't know much more about Miss Willows condition until she wakes up, and we still don't know if she will. There was brain damage done."

"Which would mean... what?" Grissom asked, afraid of the outcome.

"It could mean a lot of things. You folks are people of the scientific field so I'm going to give it to you straight. She could be in a vegetative state the rest of her life, she could wake up in an hour, she could wake up in a year. She could die from complications, but after a brain scan we saw brain activity. We don't think she's brain dead. We really can't say at the moment. We just have to hope." the doctor said with sympathy in his voice and walked away back to his other jobs.

* * *

It had been three days after Catherine's attack and she hadn't woken up from her coma yet. Grissom had received an urgent call from Dr. Phillips about Catherine's status. He told him to come down to the hospital and talk to him in person before he told him. Grissom walked into the hospital and towards the desk where he saw Dr. Phillips speaking with a nurse. "Dr. Phillips." Grissom said to announce his presence.

"Ah, Mr. Grissom."

"You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yeah, uh. Let's go someplace more secluded if we could." he walked towards the empty waiting room and shut the door. "Mr. Grissom, I have good news." he said in a hopeful tone. "Miss Willows woke from her coma today."

"That's great!" Grissom wanted to continue with questions of how she was and whatnot, but the doctor stopped him.

"I do have bad news, however." he was scared of the new tone the doctor had acquired. "We found out the extension of her head injury. She suffered enough brain damage to cause memory loss."

"She has amnesia?" Grissom sounded like his world came tumbling down in those two words: memory loss.

"A form of it. Actually in all my years of working I've never seen anything like it. She's lost her memory, but gained someone else's."

"What?" Grissom was confused beyond belief.

"She isn't Catherine Willows. She keeps telling us her name is Roxanne Maxwell. This is one of the strangest encounters I've ever had, but she doesn't remember anything about her real life."

Grissom's face grew pale.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Well how long do you think this is going to last?" Grissom asked, finally finding his voice.

"Can't say. Amnesia cases are usually temporary." the doctor explained.

"Usually?"

"I'm not guaranteeing she'll get her memory back, Mr. Grissom." Grissom rubbed his eyes and thought for a moment.

"So, what do we do about it?"

"Well, I suggest you don't tell her she isn't who she thinks she is, at least not right away. It could cause some trauma and she probably wouldn't believe you. However, we either need to keep her in the hospital mental ward, or she needs to stay with someone so they can keep an eye on her."

"She can stay with me. I don't want her to stay in the hospital."

"Mr. Grissom, I hope you understand what you're doing. Miss Willows isn't herself anymore, she isn't your friend and co worker. She's a complete stranger. It's a big challenge here to have a stranger staying with you."

"Well, I'll take the challenge. I don't want her staying in the hospital, okay?"

"Alright. Well we'll keep her overnight for observation, make sure she's okay physically. You can go in and see her if you like. Get... aquainted." the doctor gestured to the door and walked away to his other patients. Gil stood outside Catherine's door and waited to go in, completely not knowing what to expect. Will she hate him? Will she be nice or is this new personality a bitch? It was all scaring him a lot. He knocked on the door and heard her voice softly say come in. He opened the door and saw her lying in the bed, looking back at him.

"Hi." he said softly, walking in a bit more, but still far away enough to make a quick exit.

"Hello... can I help you?" It broke his heart that she didn't recognize him. He knew it would break her friends' hearts too.

"Miss Maxwell?" he grimaced at calling her that.

"Yes?" He hated even more that she answered to it.

"I'm Gil Grissom. I'll be... taking you home and watching over you for a couple of weeks because of your injuries." he tried to sound professional, like he was with the hospital.

"Home? I'm sorry, I have to get back to _my _home, I can't stay here for a couple of weeks."

"Where is your home, Miss Maxwell?" Grissom was afraid to ask.

"First of all, call me Roxie." she smiled a bit at him. "Secondly, I live in Manhatten." Grissom swore he was going to lose his lunch. She thought she lived in New York. New York of all places! Could she BE any further away!

"I'm sorry, _Roxie_ but the doctors informed me you can't leave Las Vegas until you're better." He lied and tried to buy some time with her so she wouldn't leave and then wake up one day in New York as Catherine Willows again.

"Why can't I just fly back to New York and have the doctors _there _keep an eye on me?"

"Because the doctors here want you to stay! I'm sorry, you're staying!"

"Fine!" Roxie yelled, both very agitated with the other.

* * *

Grissom picked "Roxie" up from the hospital the next day. They were both very silent and didn't speak with each other until they got back to Grissom's townhouse. He had gone over to Catherine's house the previous day and packed her some clothes, trying to make this all seem as normal as possible.

"You can put your stuff in the back room down the hallway." Grissom said to her as they walked into the townhouse. She did as he said and emerged from the hallway. Roxie took a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her pocket, removed one from the packet, lit it and began to inhale the smoke. "No, no and no!" Grissom grabbed the cigarette from between her fingers. He was suprised, because Catherine had given up smoking when she became pregnant.

"What the hell!" she yelled as he took her cigarette away from her.

"No smoking in my house. None, okay? I don't want the furniture to smell like an ash tray!"

"Fine!" She snatched the cigarette from his hand. "I'll go smoke it outside!" she slammed the door and stomped down the steps.

The next couple of weeks were going to be hell.

_TBC_


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Don't own "Girl can Rock" by Hilary Duff.**

_**Thanks for the help Jen! You rock!**_

Chapter 4

It had been 2 days since "Roxie" moved in with Gil and he didn't like it, nor did she. Grissom found Roxie really obnoxious and Roxie found Grissom arrogant. They tried their best to stay out of each other's way, but Grissom couldn't take it anymore when he was awoken by increasingly LOUD music. He jumped out of bed, and ran out of his bedroom attempting to find the root of the annoying music.

Ready for the big time, ready for the small, whatever's coming to you, I'll be ready for it all! Sometimes it ain't easy, sometimes it's not polite. Somedays I don't get it, somedays I get it right!

The girl's voice shrilled in Grissom's ears as he made his way over to the stereo and shut the music off. Roxie, who had been singing along, turned around as the stereo was turned off and gave Grissom a cold glare. "Hey!"

"What the hell is that!" Grissom yelled back at her.

"It's Hilary Duff, her voice is kickin' isn't it?" Roxie said smugly.

"Oh yeah, it's so kickin' I could kick her!" Grissom walked into the kitchen where he saw Roxie making toast. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. He went to take a sip and tried not to spit it out all over the place. "What is this?"

"Coffee..." she said, not turning her attention from the toast. She placed a brownish, yellowish colored liquid in front of him.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Drink it."

"Drink the bile from hell? I don't think so."

"You don't have to be so snippy about it." she placed the toast in front of him and he noticed it was so burnt, she surely had to have used a blow torch. "I made breakfast, if I'm going to stay here I thought I could help out at the least."

"You do realize it's 4 in the morning right?" Grissom eyed the disgusting liquid in the glass.

"I'm an early riser." she shrugged.

"You know, as appetizing as this looks I think I'll have to pass. I... have some errands to run. Try not to burn down the house." he joked, getting up from the table and went to get dressed.

"Ass." she said under her breath, but he still heard her. He brushed it off and continued back to his bedroom. He got dressed, got in his car and drove to the lab. He went into his office and sat down.

"Peace." he whispered to himself and just relaxed in his chair while listening to his headphones. Jim Brass just happened to walk by and saw his door open a crack. He pushed it open and saw Grissom listening to music with his eyes closed.

"Gil?" he said loud enough for Grissom to hear him. He removed his headphones.

"What?" Gil said in a not-so-happy tone.

"What are you doing here? Or did you forget you have a 2 week vacation in which time you're SUPPOSED to be looking after Catherine."

"Oh yes, the demon from hell." he replied sarcastically.

"So, how is she?"

Grissom sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. "Jim, I swear that woman will be the death of me."

"That bad?"

"I awoke to the wonderful serenade of Hilary Duff this morning." Brass had a good laugh at this.

"So, Roxie likes Hilary Duff?"

"She also likes waking up at 4 in the morning and trying to poison me." Brass laughed again.

* * *

After about 4 hours of uninterrupted bliss, Grissom decided to go home and face the wrath known as Roxie. He was relieved to find out she had gone back to sleep so he took the same oppurtunity and laid back down in his room and drifted to slumber land.

Grissom woke up and looked at his alarm clock. He was shocked to see he'd slept for 9 hours. He rose from bed and smelled something very good coming from the kitchen. He walked towards the room and saw Roxie setting down two plates with heavenly scented food seeping it's way to his nose. She saw him standing in the doorway.

"Hi. I was just about to come wake you. Want some dinner?"

"Wow, this looks great." he sat down as did she and they both quietly ate their dinners. Grissom broke the silence after a while.

"Roxie this tastes very good. From the sight I saw this morning I didn't think you could cook all that well." he said appreciatively, amazed she actually did something right.

"Well, I'll tell you a little secret. I can't cook work beans. I actually ran down the street to the Italian restaraunt and picked up the chicken marsala." she smiled sheepishly.

"You went out?" Grissom asked firmly.

"Yeah." she said and went back to her dinner. Grissom angrily stood up and began to pace the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"You went out! You can't do that! You aren't allowed to leave the house unless I go with you!"

"What is with all these rules!" she stood up now too and got in his face. "News flash! I'm not a child! I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want!"

He copied her childish words. "News flash! You had a head injury, it isn't safe for you to go out!"

"I've been here two days and I haven't fainted, I haven't felt woozy, I'm FINE! Why can't you just let me go home!"

"You know what? Go! Catch the next flight to New York! I don't care, you are annoying beyond words!" he stomped off into his bedroom and slammed the door. He realized what he had just said to her and he knew he had to stop her before she bought tickets on the next plane out of here. He ran out of his bedroom and saw Roxie sitting in the kitchen with a very angry look on her face. "Roxie, listen. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten so upset -" she cut him off.

"Go to hell!" she walked back to her room and took out her suitcase.

"Roxie, you can't leave." she ignored him and began putting her things into the bag. "Stop!" he grabbed her wrist to make her stop. She flung her arm out of his grasp.

"Don't you dare touch me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She went back to packing and he grabbed her wrist again. This time she got too mad at him and used her free hand to punch him in the jaw. He blacked out for a minute and hit the ground. He opened his eyes to see her in front of him. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'll go get some ice." she ran out of the room and returned with an iceback, placing it on his jaw. She held it on his face as he sat up. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have hit you." She kept holding it to his jaw as he looked at her with a blank expression. She had no clue what he was thinking, his face so unreadable so she handed him the ice pack and walked out of the bedroom. Grissom waited there, sitting on the floor for a few minutes until he rose up to see where she went. He saw her out on the balcony, having a cigarette.

"You know those things are bad for you." Grissom told her as he stepped out onto the balcony to stand beside her.

"Like I haven't heard that before." she said quietly, not looking at him. "I'm sorry I hit you. That was out of line."

"It was. But I shouldn't have been so rude to you. But you can't leave Roxie. You can't go yet. You need to stay here for a while longer." She looked up at him.

"Think we'll both be alive by the end of it?"

"Well, we'll try not to strangle each other." he let out a small smile to her.

"Okay, fine. I'll stay." she said. Suddenly, she shivered a bit.

"It's cold out tonight. Here." he said as he took off his jacket and placed it over her shoulders.

"How's your face?" she asked.

"I'll be okay." he smiled and they looked at the bright lights of Las Vegas.

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

Spoilers: Probably a lot. I'm gonna have some flashbacks in this. Stick to mainly Eddie episodes. And ignore the fact we just got a new sheriff in Hollywood Brass. Pretend it's Atwater.

Disclaimer: Don't own Secret by Maroon 5

Chapter 5

_

* * *

"Sucking up to our daughter cause I caught you robbing me."_

_"The only thing I ever robbed you of was good sex." She scoffed._

_"No sex is worth you, and you are not taking my daughter to a club with one of your music whores."_

_"Oh, they're whores? When I met you, you were taking your clothes off in a strip club."_

_"It was a job Ed. And it supported you, just like every job I've had including this one!" _

_"Yeah, and who paid to close up your nose?" _

_"You are such a bast-" The man grabbed her arm and then the other and pushed her up against the glass wall. _

_"Let go of me." _

_"I'll let go of you when I'm damn good and-" _

_"Let go of her Ed!" another man came and pushed him off of her.

* * *

_

Roxie awoke in a sweat. She was panting and went to get a glass of water from the kitchen. As she gulped the water, she wondered where these dreams were coming from. She'd been having the dreams for the past 4 days now and didn't know why. This was the second time she had had this dream. She wondered even more why Gil was in some of them, and why everyone seemed to call her Catherine. She finished the rest of her water and returned to bed.

* * *

_"Are you near a lake? Are you near Grandma's house?" she was speaking into the phone. _

_"No, the water's in the car!" the frantic young voice said from the other end of the phone. _

_"In the car? Lindsey, can you get out?"

* * *

_

_She stood looking down at the body. She was in a dark, cool room and the body, draped from the waist down in a white sheet had a bullet hole in the chest._

_"Catherine, you can't say good bye in an autopsy room." another mystery man stated and she walked out.

* * *

_

Roxie woke up again. The man that was in many of her dreams was lying dead. She breathed heavily and just wanted the dreams to go away. She fell back asleep and had no more dreams that night.

* * *

Roxie walked out of her room and into the kitchen where she saw Gil reading the paper and drinking coffee. She sat down and rubbed her temple with her index and middle fingers.

"You don't look so good." Grissom said to her.

"I didn't sleep very well." she responded. "I have a head ache."

"Well, there's some coffee over there, why don't you go ahead and drink some." She did as he said and poured herself some coffee then practically devoured it in one gulp.

"So, uh, there's this little banquet that's going to be happening next week for the place I work. You remember how I told you I work at the Crime Lab?"

"Yeah."

"Anyway, the sheriff is retiring and there holding a banquet in his honor tomorrow. Would you be interested in going? I can understand if you want to stay here." he asked nervously. The only reason he was asking if because Jim talked him into it. He doesn't think she should be around all the people she used to see everyday just yet. Someone might forget she's not Catherine anymore and slip up.

"Are you kidding me? I've been in this place for a week, I'd kill to get out of it! I'd love to go. I don't have a dress though..."

"We can go shopping today and find one if you'd like."

"That'd be great. I'll just go get a shower and get ready." Grissom was happy they called a truce. He liked this Roxie a lot more.

_TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

This was the 4th store they'd been at within the past 5 hours at the Forum Shops. Grissom sat, bored to death, and waited for Roxie to emerge wearing the next dress. He should have known better, going shopping with a woman. He really wanted to smack himself for offering to take her out.

"Okay, how about this one?" Roxie emerged from the dressing room wearing a black leather, strapless, REALLY short dress that looked like it should be on the body of a 20 year old goth.

"We're going to banquet, not a rock concert." she shrugged and went back into the dressing room. He sat thinking what had he done to deserve this torture. The dresses that he thought looked okay, Roxie didn't like. The dresses she liked were too out there or too revealing for a banquet. She was acting like a teenager with her choice of dresses. She returned the dressing room again and turned towards Grissom.

"Well? What about this one?" Grissom turned with a bored expression on his face but then it lit up when he saw the gorgeous dress she was wearing. It was red, came just below her knees, spaghetti strapped and dipped so low in the back it would make the men let out a whistle only dogs could hear. The dip was trailed with red straps criss-crossing along her back and the front dipped low enough to show a nice amount of chest, but just enough to be elogant.

"Now _that _is a great dress for dinner. Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do." she smiled and did a little twirl, observing the dress in the mirror.

"Amazing! We agree on something!" She playfully smacked him in the arm and went back to change. She came back wearing her regular clothes and carrying the little red dress.

"It's 50 bucks. Pretty good steal."

"I'll have to take your word for it." he said as he handed his Visa to the clerk.

* * *

"Thanks for the dress, Gil. I really appreciate that." Roxie said as they walked into Grissom's townhouse.

"No problem. Now, how about I get started on dinner?"

"Would you do me a big favor? Would you let me cook? I know I can't, but I really wanna try. I'll follow a recipe really carefully, please?"

"Alright then."

"Thanks, uh, why don't you go take a nap or something and I'll wake you up when dinner's ready."

"That's a good suggestion. Okay, I'll be sleeping then. Good luck with dinner, try not to kill yourself." Grissom winked at her. He walked back to his room and crawled into bed. After 5 hours of shopping, this is just what he needed.

* * *

Gil woke up about 2 hours later and heard soft music coming from the living room. He quietly walked out into the hallway and listened to the song playing. He heard Roxie softly singing along. He watched as she swayed and set plates down on the table.

I know I don't know you, but I want you so bad. Everyone has a secret, oh, can they keep it? Oh no they can't. I'm driving fast now, don't think I know how to go slow. Oh, where you at now, I feel around, there you are.

Grissom pressed the off button to the stereo and Roxie looked up from where she was setting the table to see him standing there.

"Annoying music wake you up?" she smiled.

"Actually, that's a lot more like it. No annoying blasting through the walls." he chuckled and she laughed.

"I'm not sure how I did on this dinner." she slipped on the oven mitts and opened the oven to remove the dish.

"Smells good."

"It's a casserole." she placed the hot dish on the table in front of them. "It has potatoes, cheese and ham. Does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds just perfect." he looked her in the eyes and gave her a smile. She sat down across from him and they ate their meals in peace.

As they finished with their meals, they moved over to the couch in the low lit living room. "Hey, Rox, you want some wine? I have some that's gathering dust in the back of my cabinet." he said from the kitchen.

"Sure, that sounds great." He returned with the bottle and 2 wine glasses. He poured her a glass and one for himself. He settled next to her on the couch. "Cheers" she said, clinking his glass with hers. "So, what time does that banquet start tomorrow?"

"7:30."

"Terrific. So, are you going to dance with me?" she smiled warmly at him as he chuckled a bit.

"Dance? I don't think so."

"Oh come on, you can't be _that _bad." she giggled and took another sip of wine.

"Trust me, you don't want to dance with me. It's not exactly my... fortay."

"Come here." she stood up and held her hand out to him.

"What?"

"We're going to see how bad you really are. Give me your hand."

"Roxie, I really don't wanna dance."

"I don't care. Come on!" he gave in and took her hand as he got up from the couch. She walked over to the stereo with him still attatched at her hand. She clicked on the CD she had put in earlier. "If you're not the one" began to pour out of the speakers. "Okay, put your hand on my waist." When he just stood there and didn't comply she grabbed his hand and put it on her waist. "If you aren't going to cooperate, I guess I have to move you, huh? Now, just count in your head. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3." They began to sway to the music.

_If I don't need you, then why am I crying on my bed? If I don't need you then why does your name resound in my head? If you're not for me then why does this distance maim my life? If you're not for me then why do I dream of you as my wife?_

Grissom looked down at the ground as he danced, not making eye contact with Roxie. "Hey, I'm up here." Grissom snapped his eyes to her's when she said this. "Look at your partner when you dance, not at the ground." she smiled at him.

"Oh really? And how do you know so much about dancing?"

"I took ballroom classes when I was a teenager. I know, not exactly something a teenager should be doing huh? I was an oddball though." she looked down sheepishly.

"Hey, look at your partner when you dance." he said to her smugly. She looked back up at him.

"Oh, you're teaching me now?"

"Yeah, I am." he smirked. The song began to wind down.

"Okay, now dip me." he dipped her gently and kept her in her dipped position. "See, you aren't that bad of a dancer." she whispered. They kept eye contact for an eternity and began to lean in. The leaned in closer and closer until their lips touched. They hesitated for a moment but then pressed their lips harder into each other and kissed passionately. Things began to get more serious when they landed on the couch and started kissing harder. "Gil..." she said in between kisses.

"Catherine..." he said while he was kissing her neck. This name wasn't missed by Roxie who pushed him up.

"What did you call me?" anger flashed in her eyes.

"I... I..." Gil couldn't think of what to say. She got out from under him and headed for the hallway. "Roxie, wait..." She slammed the bedroom door in his face. "Roxie!" Grissom sighed deeply. 'Real good going moron.' he thought to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

Spoilers for Lady Heather's Box, Ellie, Boom, A Little Murder, Play with Fire and Strip Strangler

Chapter 7

Roxie emerged from her bedroom in her new dress with her hair swept up into a pile of curls on her head. She completed her outfit with a red sheer wrap to keep the cold out and a pair of red strappy heels. Grissom stood in the living room and stopped in his tracks.

"Wow, you look beautiful." he said, clad in his black suit. She didn't acknowledge his compliment and just gave him a glare instead. 'Oh she still must be pissed.' he though to himself. "Well, we should get going. We don't want to be late."

They arrived to the hotel where the banquet was being held and Gil gave the keys to his car to the valet. He held out his arm for Roxie to link hers in and she just stared at him for a moment. She sighed heavily, her sigh thick with attitude, and linked her arm in his. They walked into the hotel ballroom and were flooded by the many co-workers there to give best wishes to Rory Atwater in his retirement. Grissom spotted his team and walked over to the table with Roxie still on his arm. "Hey guys." he could see the nervous expressions on everyones' faces as they saw Catherine, very well knowing she wasn't Catherine. They all quietly greeted Gil back. "Roxie, I'd like you to meet Nick, Sara, Jim, Warrick, Greg, Mia -" she stopped him from introducing the rest of the faces at the table.

"I'll never remember them all so just stop." she unlatched herself from his arm and headed for the bar. "I'm going to get a drink."

"Yeah, thanks, I don't want one." she ignored him and continued on her way.

"Wow, what'd you do?" Jim asked.

"You don't want to know." he responded as he watched Roxie sit at the bar drinking a scotch. Grissom approached her. "You know, you could try to be a little nicer."

"Why should I?"

"Because we're out in public, you're embarrassing yourself."

"No, I don't think I am. You sure embarrassed yourself last night though, didn't you?" she shot back.

"Can we just drop that? Please? I made a mistake, I said a different name. It's not the end of the world."

"Whatever." she coldly turned away from him and continued drinking her drink. Grissom returned to his table with his friends.

After some cooling down time, Roxie returned to the table and sat with the rest of the happy bunch. She didn't talk too much though.

When a soft song began to play from the jazz band in the front of the ballroom, Grissom took his chance to make ammends. "Roxie, do you wanna dance?"

"No." she said quickly.

"Oh come on. Then those lessons you gave me will go to waste." he smiled and tried to wear her down. It didn't seem to be working too well at the moment.

"Fine." she sounded like a little kid who was being made to clean her room. He grabbed her hand and led her over to the dance floor with the other lab techs, cops and investigators dancing. They began to sway to the music.

"Roxie, listen, I'm sorry about last night okay? I have an explanation. But I can't tell you... not yet at least." she looked at the sincerity in his eyes.

"It's okay." she gave in finally. "I mean, it was just a kiss right? Nothing too serious."

"Yeah, not too serious." she leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes when she saw images flashing through her mind.

* * *

_"What the hell are you doing? Do you know where you're at right now?" _

_"I've been here a lot longer then you-"_

_"And you should know better."_

_"- And I wouldn't have to be here if you were doing your job properly."_

_"There's a difference between me doing my job and you wanting to do it for me. You don't want to get the job done. What you want, right now, is revenge."_

_"You're gonna tell me what I want, huh?"_

_"Go home, Catherine. Be with your daughter. She's the one that needs you."

* * *

_

_"When you clear a place you clear it! Do you understand?" _

_"Yes sir, I'm sorry."_

_"Warrick, ease up. My fault, I sent him out." _

_"Use your radio and call for backup!" The officer left the room._

_"Hey. Are you okay?"_

_"Yeah. I'm all right." The man reached out a hand to see the gash on her forehead but she moved back. _

_"Don't touch me. I'm evidence."

* * *

_

Roxie was curious why she was seeing these people she had just met in these visions. She opened her eyes and looked around, but closed them again and continued to dance with Gil.

* * *

_"I think that you and I should head over to the police station."_

_"DNA didn't pan out, huh?" the man nodded sadly. _

_"Never before have I seen such a clean match. Jack Willman killed her." the man pulled her into a hug with tears in his eyes._

_"Thank you." _

_"Hey, hey, I'm just doing my job. Besides if they sent you to jail, I'd get stuck with all your cases."

* * *

_

_"So, what? Did Warrick tell you to call me?" he said to her over the phone._

_"Do you think you're the only friend I've got in the police department? I'm just telling you, be careful."_

_"What am I supposed to do? Hold my breath and count to ten?"_

_"Hey, look. We all get a little crazy when our kids are involved."_

_"Look, I go on the job. It's standard police work. Enjoy Reno. I got this." _

_"Okay. Hey, but listen. If you find the boyfriend, don't go in alone."

* * *

_

_"What time is it?" the man wiped the sleep from his eyes._

_"Late." _

_"How long have you been here?"_

_"A while. I got a little time on my hands."_

_"You figured out what happened in the lab, didn't you?"_

_"Yeah. And, um... I wanted you to hear it from me."

* * *

_

_She ran down the stairs and stopped at the end of them. When she saw how he was about to strike down on the man with a shovel, she fired 5 rounds into him. He grunted as the bullets hit him and landed to the ground in a heap of blood and death.

* * *

_

Roxie opened her eyes quickly and let out a small gasp.

"What's wrong?" Gil asked. She was breathing deeply and looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"Can we go?" she said, sounding shook up.

"Roxie-"

"Please!" She looked as if she would cry.

"Okay." They walked out of the hotel doors and Gil gave his ticket to the valet. He went to get the car and Grissom decided to ask Roxie what was up.

"Roxie, what's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"No. I want to talk about it. There's something bothering you, what is it?"

"I just want to go home. Why won't you let me leave?"

"What?"

"Ever since I started staying with you, I've been seeing things, dreaming things, hearing these voices. I don't know what they are. I can't be here anymore, it's doing something to me. Please, just let me go home." she pleaded with him. After a few minutes he made an important decision. He was going to let her go home.

"Okay Roxie. I'll let you go home. I'll take you home myself." They entered the car and drove off.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

Spoilers for Weeping Willows and LHB

Chapter 8

They drove along the streets of the suburbs and stopped in front of a house. Grissom exited the car and Roxie just stayed there, curious of where they were. "Where are we?" she said.

"Come on. Get out of the car. Let's go." he took her hand and pulled her out of the car, leading her up to the front door. He took out a key and inserted it into the keyhole.

"What are we doing here?"He still didn't answer her. He just turned the key and opened the door. Roxie stood and didn't go in. She stared at the darkness of the house. Gil walked in and turned on the lights. He stood in front of her as she took in the home from the doorway.

"Welcome home, Catherine." she snapped her eyes to his and didn't look angry this time, but confused. She squinted her eyes and opened her mouth to say something but she didn't know what to say.

"I get it." she said, finally speaking. "This is another dream."

"No, Catherine. This isn't a dream."

"It has to be. You're calling me Catherine." She thought she was going to cry now. She was so confused and she didn't know what was going on.

"People call you 'Catherine' in your dreams?" She nodded as her eyes filled up with tears. "Does this house look familiar? Did you see this home in your dreams?" She nodded again. "What else did you see?" She inhaled a shaky breath.

"A lot of things. Those people... those people back at the party. I saw them. And I keep seeing this little girl. I see this man. I see you. And I don't know why." Tears slipped down her cheeks silently. "What's going on? Why are we here?"

"This is your home, Catherine."

"Stop calling me that!" She was beginning to get hysterical.

"That's your name."

"No! No it isn't! I'm not Catherine. Stop it!" She ran back to one of the rooms and slammed the door shut. She turned to see a dresser topped with picture frames. She glanced at the pictures. She was in some of them. She took one that was of her and a little blonde girl off of the dresser and gently slid her fingers over the glass. More tears came down her cheeks as she continued to look at the pictures. She saw more of the girl and more of her. The people from the banquet were in some of these pictures too. She left the pictures and went over to the closet. She opened it, inspecting the clothes inside. She took in the scent and remembered it. She looked at this one dress and remembered a hellish ordeal.

* * *

_The man practically attacked her mouth. She pulled back._

"_I can't do this tonight. I'll call you." She turned to get into her car but he grabbed her arm and wouldn't let go. She struggled to escape his tight grasp. _

"_What the hell is your problem?" She continued to struggle._

"_Go to hell." He released her car door as it came back to smack her in the face.

* * *

_

Her eyes began tearing again as she remembered her bad situation. She went back to the dresser and saw a picture of her, the little girl and a man. She came out from the bedroom and walked towards Grissom who was sitting on the couch. She held the picture frame in her hand and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Are you alright? Is everything okay?" He began to frantically ask questions. She sadly looked down at the picture.

"Who is he?" she pointed to the man in the picture.

"That's Eddie... your ex-husband." She continued to stare at the picture.

"He's dead."

"Yes." he responded sadly. She started to cry again and her falling tears landing on the frame.

"Will you take me to her?"

"Who?"

"My daughter." He nodded and put his jacket on. He put his hand on her back and led her out the door as she placed the picture on the front table, still wet with her tears.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Spoilers: Harvest and Weeping Willows

_**I know, I know. Short chapter after I haven't updated in forever. But I'm going to write another one tonight (hopefully). Is it pathetic it took me 3 days to write this chapter? I'm such a procrastinator. **_

"Are you sure about this, Roxie?" Gil asked as they stood on the doorstep of Catherine's mother's home. She nodded as he tapped on the door. It was late, and all the lights were out, but they got to an important turning point in Catherine getting her memory back. He wasn't going to let time get in the way. Catherine's mother opened the door in a nightgown and robe and was shocked to see the two of them standing there. They all held awkward stares for a few moments until Lily moved aside to let them enter. As they did, Grissom broke the silence.

"Roxie, this is Lily... your mother." Roxie's eyes filled with tears upon hearing this. Lily hugged her tight and Roxie, unsure of what to do, let her. Catherine looked at Gil and he knew what she wanted. "I'll go get her." he said. Lily pointed to the door where Lindsey's room was and Grissom walked back and opened the door. He returned with Lindsey a few minutes later. Roxie was holding back sobs as tears went down her cheeks. 'How could I not remember my own daughter?' she thought to herself. "This is Lindsey." Grissom told her. Roxie stared down at her daughter and continued to cry.

"Hi." she said in a small voice. Lindsey stared back at her not knowing what to say. "You're just as pretty as you are in the pictures I've seen." Tears continued to flow from her eyes and Lindsey's eyes began to fill up with tears as well. "Honey... do you think it'd be okay if I hugged you?" Lindsey looked from Grissom to Lily and back to Roxie then nodded. Roxie wrapped her arms around the girl. Lindsey hugged her back and Roxie began to remember again...

* * *

_"Okay, what or who is on Freemont Street that you would risk your life to get to? Mouthing off to teachers, slipping grades and now hitchhiking? I mean, what is next, Lindsey?"_

_"Stripping." the young girl said under her breath._

_"What did you just say?" She let out an exasperated chuckle. "Okay, no phones, no friends, no nothing."_

_"For how long?"_

_"A month." The girl rolled her eyes. _

_"Whatever."_

_"Hey, you want to make it two?"_

_"Dad always said you were a drama queen."_

_"Well what do you expect Lindsey, since he was always high."_

_"I'd take Dad high over you anyday!"

* * *

_

_"Just do it. I'm not scared." She opened a drawer with a dead woman inside._

_"She was waiting for a bus downtown when she was attacked. She was taller and stronger then you, Lindsey. She fought back and she didn't win. Someone's going to have to tell her family. Her parents are going to have to see her like this... Do you get it now?" The girl stared up at her and gave her a cold glare then ran from the room.

* * *

_

_"Mom, we're fine. Take Lindsey inside."_

_"Let's go." _

_"I don't - I don't want to."_

_"Lindsey." she says firmly._

_"Are you gonna go out again?" The girls eyes feign innocence and plead with her mother.

* * *

_

Roxie opened her eyes and released the girl from her hold. She ran a hand through her hair and blinked away more tears. Grissom decided they needed to get out of there before too much emotion was happening at the moment. "Roxie, we should go. Lindsey has school tomorrow, she needs to get back to bed." Roxie looked up at Grissom with tears in her eyes still, and nodded. She let go of Lindsey and Grissom led Roxie out the door. They walked out and Lindsey just stared at the closed door.

"Come on Lindsey," her grandmother told her, "time for bed." Lindsey backed away from the door still staring at it then turned and went back to her room.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**I know, yet again, I take forever and ever to update. I'm a pathetic excuse for a writer. I don't like this chapter personally, you may not either, haha. I just needed to wrap up a few things I guess. It's short and out of character, so you have a right to insult it on a review. :)**

Gil and Roxie situated themselves at the table in the kitchen. They each took a sip of their waters and stayed silent for some time. Grissom finally broke the silence. "Are you going to be okay?" Roxie took a long time to answer as she swirled her finger around in the cold liquid.

"Can you tell me some things?" she said, finally speaking.

"Sure. Anything you want to know."

"Okay... what exactly is our relationship?" she asked. Grissom sighed before he continued and pondered the answer.

"We're good friends and co-workers."

"So we work together?" He nodded. "What exactly do I do?"

"You investigate crime scenes: robberies, homicides, kidnappings. The works."

"I solve those things?"

"Yep."

"Wow. Gross. I was always sorta squimish... at least I thought I was." Roxie closed her eyes as more memories began to come to her.

* * *

_"How long have we known each other?"_

_"In days, months or years?"_

_"I'm serious here... Can you hear me?"

* * *

_

_"Surgery... Your hearing?"_

_"Yep."_

_"I'm sorry." she said sincerely. _

_"I'm not. It needs to be done."_

_"What can I do?"_

_"Nothing, I'm fine." He said shrugging her off and hiding his fear. Obviously, not doing a very good job. "Take care care of the case." He began to walk about but she stopped him. _

_"Uh, um - That's it?" _

_"That's it... Uh. Good luck." He left the locker room and she stared after him.

* * *

_

_"Hey." She brushed the hair out of her face as she stood in the doorway._

_"What are you doing here?"_

_"I just wanted to see you. And I didn't want you to go in without wishing you good luck." _

_"Thank you... for being here." She pulled him in for a hug and he awkwardly hugged her back. They pulled apart and he smirked at her the looked over to the nurse with a wheel chair for him. "I don't need that." He signaled to the chair and then walked down the hall as she smiled a watery smile back at him.

* * *

_

Roxie opened her eyes and Grissom saw she was thinking about something and looked confused.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Did you have surgery?"

"What?"

"Surgery? Did you have surgery?" He was happy she was remembering again and he decided to test her a bit.

"Yes... do you know where?"

"Does it have something to do with your hearing?" He smiled at her and restrained jumping for joy that she's remembering again.

"Yes, it did." She felt more memories coming to her again...

* * *

_"We should ask for his clothes. Black leather jacket, black t-shirt, jeans."_

_"What else should we ask him, Catherine?" _

_"This is what I was trying to tell you."_

_"Yeah, but you didn't. So now I'm way behind. Is he telling the truth?"_

_"He's not lying about anything that pertains to me." He looked over to her when he saw the mark on her cheek._

_"He hit you." _

_"No it was an accident. But... by the time it happened, he wasn't who I thought he was and... that scared me."

* * *

_

"How long have we been friends?" Roxie asked.

"About... 20 years I'd say." he answered.

"We're only friends then?"

"What do you mean?"

"We were never anything more?"

"No. We weren't."

"So the other night must have been awkward for you..." He chuckled.

"Well, thinking back to it, yes, it was a bit odd."

"Have you ever wanted to be anything more?"

"I never really thought too much about it."

"Well, you must have wanted to." she told him. "You didn't say my name when we were kissing. You said 'Catherine.' So in your mind, I was Catherine, right?"

"Roxie..." she stopped him by walking over to him and kissing him.

"Call me Catherine." She smiled and he smiled back.

"You aren't gonna get mad and run off then?" Her smile grew bigger.

"No..." They kissed again and she led him back towards the bedroom. Gil stopped at this.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Are you?" He stared at her for a minute, unsure. He didn't answer, but kissed her again as they continued back to the bedroom.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**You all are gonna wanna kill me...**

Grissom awoke to cluttering coming from outside of his bedroom. He put on a robe and walked out into the kitchen where he saw 'Catherine' making something on the stove. He liked that... Thinking about her as Catherine again. It gave him tremendous hope when she told him to call her that last night. He leaned in the doorway waiting for her to turn around. She turned around and nearly dropped the skillet she was holding.

"Jesus, it would help if you let me know you were there." She held her hand over her heart like she was having a heart attack. "Do you want some pancakes?" she said, shoveling some onto a plate. "I cooked them _without_ recipital help."

"Recipital? That's a word?"

"It is if I want it to be." She grinned at him and gave him the plate of pancakes. He was about to dig in when the telephone rang. He walked over and answered it.

"Hello?... Dr. Phillips... Okay, uh, we'll be there in about an hour?... Great. Thanks." He hung up with the doctor and went back and sat down at the table. "Ro - Catherine, that was the hospital. They have an idea. They want us to come in today, okay?" She looked up from her plate and nodded, then went back to her pancakes.

After finishing their breakfast, they drove to the hospital and walked down the corridor. The nurse led them to Dr. Phillips' office. Dr. Phillips stood and shook hands with Grissom. "Mr. Grissom... Miss Willows. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay, I think." She gave him a small smile.

"That's good... Now the reason I called you down here. We have this new... procedure, I guess you could call it. It's more of a machine."

"A machine?" Catherine asked nervously.

"Yes. It sends tiny stimulation shock waves throughout the brain, we've used it on amnesia victims. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If you are willing to do it, we can try to restore your memory this way. However there are risks."

"What kind of risks?" Gil asked.

"Brain damage risks..."

"How severe of brain damage?" He asked again.

"It varies. I just wanted to let you know there are complications before you make any decisions."

"Could you give us a minute?" Grissom asked the doctor.

"Sure." Grissom pulled Catherine out into the hallway.

"Do you want to do this, Catherine?"

"I think it's worth a shot, don't you?" She tried to smile hopefully, but fear was evident in her eyes.

"But you heard to complications. Brain damage!"

"I know... but what's worse then not remembering your whole life, your friends and your daughter?" She was on the verge of tears, but blinked them away. "I think I should try."

"Okay." He said, pulling her into a hug. They walked back into Dr. Phillips' office.

"Well?" the doctor asked them.

"I want to do it." Catherine told him.

"Okay." He said, giving her a small smile. "I'll just get some forms for you both to sign. The whole procedure will cost about $1000. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine. The cost doesn't matter." Gil told the doctor.

* * *

Catherine was now sitting in a chair with a helmet-like thing strapped on her head. They were in a small examination room, Dr. Phillips was standing behind a technician who was sitting at a desk with a computer in front of him. "Well, here goes." the doctor told them.

"Good luck." Gil said, kissing her hand. She looked terrified, but happy to be trying this at the same time.

"Okay, you may feel a slight headache. It's a normal side effect. We're going to begin... now." Catherine immeadiately felt the headache when they started the machine. It wasn't horrible, but of course it wasn't comforting. It's a headache! The technician sat behind the computer and his eyes were glued to the screen. He moved the mouse around and clicked in certain places. Catherine got very dizzy all of a sudden. She tried to concentrate on the wall in front of her, but she became very tired as well as dizzy. She fell from her chair and onto the floor with a thump. She heard the men's feet on the tile running over to her. She tried to open her eyes but she couldn't. She tried to move, she couldn't do that either. She began to panick in her mind when she realized she wasn't breathing. She tried to inhale, but nothing. She didn't even move. She thought she heard the doctor screaming out to go get something or someone, but everything she heard was becoming a blur. After a few more times of trying to breathe, she gave up. Her mind was becoming cloudy. She wasn't thinking straight, all she was thinking about was that she couldn't breathe. She felt something on her lips, she learned it was another mouth, probably the doctors. The mouth began to blow air into her mouth, but it just blew right back out and didn't transport to her lungs as they tried to. The mouth continued to try and blow air into her lungs but it didn't work.

Catherine began to think about the past two weeks: How much her life had seem to change. She was a criminalist. She was a mother! She thought about Lindsey, and all the pictures of her. She thought about the memories she had of her. She thought about her friends, most of them from the crime lab. She thought about the night at the banquet and how they were acting around her: How weird they all seemed. Then she thought about Gil. These past couple of weeks would have been hell without him. She hadn't remembered much about him but she felt her life would be an empty cause without him, granted she would live to see tomorrow. She remembered the wonderful time they had shared last night. She realized that she was head over heels in love with him...

And then her heart stopped.

TBC

_See? Don't you hate me?_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It was a very gloomy kind of day. The clouds were quickly approaching, moving in and just waiting to release their fury of storms onto Las Vegas. The flowers on the grave were freshly planted. She looked down at her mother's grave. She read over it and took in every detail. Her name, her birthdate, her date of death. The mourners went home already. She'd stayed to look at her mother's grave. She was wearing a simple black skirt and a simple black shirt. She wore her blondish hair up in a pony tail. A stray hair had gotten away from the security of the hair tie and she tucked it behind her face. The winds began to grow stronger and the trees swayed back and forth. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she didn't dare remove her eyes from the headstone. She suddenly heard a voice calling for her. She turned around and saw Gil coming towards her. He put his arm around her shoulder and looked down at the headstone with her. He then looked at her.

"Are you ready to leave soon? It's going to start raining soon."

"I'll be there in a minute."

Grissom walked back to the car. He sat and waited for her to finish. He didn't want to rush her. This was a very hard time for her. Losing your mother is never easy of course. Then the rain began to fall. It drizzled at first for a couple of minutes. She didn't look up, she acted like the rain wasn't falling and that she couldn't feel it. She wished her pain was like the rain right now: That she couldn't feel it. The rain poured down now and she looked up at the sky. She closed her eyes and let the rain beat off of her face. She opened her eyes and turned around to look at Gil sitting in the car. She slowly began to walk to where it was parked. She got into the passanger side and kept her eyes on the dashboard.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine... eventually." she said solemnly.

"I'm sorry about your mother, Catherine." She smiled a sad smile at him. "I love you."

He remembered that day, about a year ago. She was so close to death. He's grateful she's alive. Catherine isn't very much though. Her mother had died of breast cancer, and right now Catherine really wished she wasn't alive to see it. It hit her hard. Her mother and her didn't always agree but they had such a close bond, and he knew Catherine would have a hard time getting through this. But he was going to stay by his wife's side and see her through it til the end: Just like he always had, just like he always will.

* * *

_Did I actually fool any of you good people? Did anyone think it was Lindsey?_


End file.
